This invention relates to a device and method for treating liquid fuels, including gasoline and diesel fuel, to improve the combustion characteristics of the fuels in internal combustion engines.
The subject of energy conservation is currently attracting great attention, especially in the areas of petroleum and petroleum-based fuels. The automobile is one of the chief consumers of petroleum in the form of gasoline and significant conservation of energy could be achieved by improving the combustion process in the internal combustion engine. Thus, a great deal of effort is now being directed to achieve a greater amount of work from the automobile engine for an equal amount of fuel consumed. A desirable by-product of more efficient combustion is that engine exhaust emissions are generally cleaner since the fuel is more completely burned.
Various attempts in the past to improve the combustion characteristics of fuel involved applying electrostatic fields across the fuel as it flowed to the combustion chamber. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,376,180 to Wickersham, issued Apr. 26, 1921, the fuel is subjected to the action of an electric spark passing between electrodes. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,116,726 to Kwartz, issued Jan. 7, 1964, a coil mounted next to the fuel line creates a high intensity magnetic field which affects the combustion characteristics of the fuel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,273 to McMahon, issued Feb. 14, 1978 teaches the use of an electrostatic field applied across the fuel line to produce a measurable alteration in hydrocarbon composition of the fuel making it less susceptible to detonation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,426 to Sanderson, issued Sept. 27, 1977, shows a device including a magnetic chamber placed in the fuel line with the fuel flowing over a sheathed magnetic material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,668 to Yoshimine, issued Aug. 3, 1971, describes a static charger for electrostatically charging fuel going to the carburetor of an automobile. The device includes a friction element which is made up of a sheet or mesh coated with a semiconductor film.
The mechanism by which such devices work is not fully understood. One theory advanced is that when charged fuel evaporates, electrically charged particles having the same polarity are electrically repulsed from one another, thus increasing the rate of vaporization of the fuel. Another theory is that the alkyl and alkene chains making up hydrocarbon fuels are initially distributed in an asymmetric nonpolar pattern. Minute impurities having a polar makeup are present in the fuel as it comes from the refinery or are introduced during transportation and storage. By redistributing the molecular pattern of the impurities in the fuel through the application of an electrostatic charge, more efficient and complete combustion is achieved.
By whatever theory, such devices in operation have been shown to alter the combustion characteristics of fuel.